


Coyote&Roadrunner

by Kivan



Series: Andreil Week 2019 [5]
Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Andreil Week 2019, M/M, Strange Coping Mechanisms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-11
Updated: 2019-07-11
Packaged: 2020-06-26 15:18:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19770949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kivan/pseuds/Kivan
Summary: The raggedy coyote drops an anvil over the edge of a cliff as he watches but somehow a few short scenes later, the roadrunner plucks at the screen and bolts out of the frame.“He has to know,” Neil says, and Andrew looks back at him.





	Coyote&Roadrunner

**Author's Note:**

> For Andreil Week 2019.  
> Gratuitous use of metaphor. Apologies.

Day5-Coyote&Roadrunner

As Allison, Dan and Renee have spent months attempting to teach Neil about current culture, Andrew figures that eventually one of them will stick. He thinks it may be a sport for a while, but it’s not. When they try video games- even the retro ones, like pinball- he knows that won’t be it. Neil proves good at ping pong, and then at pool as well, but Andrew isn’t surprised when this also falls by the wayside.

Renee and Neil form a new tradition of running on the treadmills in the school rec center at odd hours, but Andrew doesn’t consider this a new habit. Until Allison joins them halfway through November and suddenly Neil is up to date on every celebrity update and fashion trend. But this isn’t an obsession, he decides.

It isn’t until Thanksgiving break that Andrew figures out what it may be. He wakes around 2 am and is momentarily confused when the other side of the bed is empty. By the time he makes his way downstairs he realizes the TV is on, the volume turned down low.

If there is anything he expects to be Neil’s new obsession, it isn’t old Acme cartoons. But at 2am, Neil is sat in the corner of the couch with the blanket over his shoulders and his knees pulled to his chest.

He looks pathetic, and deeply invested in the animated race playing on the screen across the room from him.

Andrew is not enthralled by the sight of him.

But he still startles just a bit when Neil whispers into the dark, “It’s so stupid.”

After a moment, realizing Neil is speaking to him, Andrew answers, “What is?”

“He has to know he’s not going to catch it,” Neil tells him now, and Andrew puzzles over it for a moment before looking at the screen.

The raggedy coyote drops an anvil over the edge of a cliff as he watches but somehow a few short scenes later, the roadrunner plucks at the screen and bolts out of the frame.

“He has to know,” Neil says, and Andrew looks back at him.

Andrew is not used to this- he’s not sure he ever will be. But when Neil looks like this- vacant, haunted and lost- Andrew wants to shake him until it hurts one or both of them.

“It’s a cartoon, junkie,” Andrew tells him. He hasn’t moved, closer or further, and he’s not sure if he’ll be able to.

“But,” Neil says now, his voice nearly a squeak against the dark of the room.

The volume of the TV is just a whisper under them.

“But,” Neil tries again, and Andrew feels his feet move before he can stop them. He slides onto the couch with less distance between them than he normally would require. “He has to know the roadrunner is faster.”

“They aren’t, though,” Andrew tells him, not sure if it helps when Neil jumps. “Roadrunners’ aren’t faster than coyotes- they’re smaller and able to duck through brush easier.” Neil continues to stare vacantly at the screen. “The roadrunner wins because he outmaneuvers, more than being faster.”

The stricken looks pulls at Neil’s eyebrow as he frowns. Andrew does not attempt to smooth it, but it’s a near thing.

Instead Andrew says, “He does catch him.” Suddenly Neil turns his head and looks at Andrew with that same kind of hopeful expression that makes Andrew hate him a bit more. Neil’s feet slip under his thigh, the blanket still between them as Neil turns to meet him face on.

“He does?” Neil asks, voice still small, and Andrew wishes he knew what had brought on this stupid tail of logic that Neil seems so wrapped up in the misadventures of some desert vermin.

“Yeah,” Andrew says, “There’s a stupid skit with some pipes and somehow after the whole race, back and then forth, the coyote shrinks and the roadrunner lets him catch up, because the roadrunner is for that moment so much larger, that when the coyote catches up he realizes that there isn’t any way he could possibly eat such a large creature.”

Neil is looking at him with wide eyes and Andrew can remember watching the skit himself, years ago, and looking back on it, the whole thing is just a skit about the creation of characters so profitable that there’s no way they can be taken away or destroyed.

But that’s what he wants Neil to focus on probably, the fact that he may be a roadrunner in this scenario, but he beat his coyote. He’s too large now to just be swept under a rug and forgotten. There is a world who focuses on the tragedy of Palmetto State, with Neil Josten in the center.

For just a moment, Andrew wonders if that’s exactly where this obsession has come from.

And he says, “You can’t run away now.” Neil swallows suddenly and Andrew knows he’s right. “The coyote can’t do anything even if he catches you now. You’re too big.”

“For now,” Neil says, looking back at the TV where the chase is still happening.

“Yes,” Andrew agrees, “And for as long as I say so.”

Neil scoffs and looks back at him- there’s no more vacant eyes now- and he looks ready to fight about it.

Andrew doesn’t know what his face looks like, but when Neil meets his eyes, he pauses. And a long moment later, he nods.

A few weeks later, Andrew decides that cartoons are no longer an obsession he has to worry about.

**Author's Note:**

> https://youtu.be/KJJW7EF5aVk


End file.
